On the Eve of Destruction

Posted on Oct 22, 2007

Thomas Jefferson, one of our nation’s greatest founders, made the separation of church and state an underlying principle upon which the United States was built. This separation was all-inclusive, meaning that not only should government stay out of religion, but likewise religion should be excluded from government. “I never submitted the whole system of my opinions to the creed of any party of men whatever in religion, in philosophy, in politics, or in anything else where I was capable of thinking for myself,” Jefferson wrote in a letter to Francis Hopkinson in 1789. “Such an addiction is the last degradation of a free and moral agent.” If only President Bush would abide by such wisdom, avoiding the addictive narcotic of religious fervor when carrying out the people’s business. Instead, he chooses as his drug one which threatens to destroy us all in a conflagration derived not from celestial intervention but individual ignorance and arrogance. Again Jefferson, in a letter written in 1825: “It is between fifty and sixty years since I read it [the Apocalypse], and I then considered it merely the ravings of a maniac, no more worthy nor capable of explanation than the incoherences of our own nightly dreams.”

About the AuthorScott RitterA former Marine Corps intelligence officer, Scott Ritter was a chief inspector for the United Nations Special Commission in Iraq from 1991 until 1998. He is the author of several books; “Target Iran,” with a new afterword by the author, was recently released in paperback by Nation Books.For more on Scott Ritter, including his previous Truthdig columns, click here.

Nightmares, more aptly, unless something can be done to change the direction Bush and Dobson are taking us. The problem is that far too many Americans openly espouse not only the faith of George W. Bush but also the underlying philosophy which permits this faith to be intertwined with the governance of the land. “God bless America” has become a rallying cry for this crowd, and those too ignorant and/or afraid to speak out in opposition. If this statement has merit, what does it say for the 6.8 billion others in the world today who are not Americans? That God condemns them? The American embrace of divine destiny is not unique in history (one only has to recall that the belt buckles of the German army during World War II read “God is with us”). But for a nation born of the age of reason to collectively fall victim to the most base of fear-induced theology is a clear indication that America currently fails to live up to its founding principles. Rather than turning to Dobson and his ilk for guidance in these troubled times, Americans would be well served to reflect on President Abraham Lincoln’s second inaugural address, delivered in the middle of a horrific civil war which makes all of the conflict America finds itself in today pale in comparison:

“Both [North and South] read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other. ... The prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes. ... [T]hat He gives to both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him?”

God is not on our side, or the side of any single nation or people. To believe such is the ultimate expression of national hubris. To invoke such, if one is a true believer, is to embrace sacrilege and heresy. This, of course, is an individual right, granted as an extension of religious freedom. But it is not a collective right, nor is it a right born of governance, especially in a land protected by the separation of church and state.

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The issue of Iran is a national problem which requires a collective debate, discussion and dialogue inclusive of all the facts, and stripped of all ideology and theocracy which would seek to deny reasoned thought conducted within a framework of accepted laws and ideals. It is grossly irresponsible of an American president to invoke the imagery of World War III without first sharing with the American people the framework of thought that produced such a comparison. Such openness will not be forthcoming from this administration or president. Not in the form of Stephen Hadley’s policy of no policy, designed with intent to avoid and subvert both bureaucratic and legislative process and oversight, or Dick Cheney’s secret government within a government, operating above and beyond the law and in a manner which violates both legal and moral norms and values, and certainly not in the president’s own private conversations with “God,” either directly or through the medium of lunatic evangelicals who embrace the termination of all we stand for, and especially the future of our next generation, in a fiery holocaust born from the fraudulent writings of centuries past. The processes which compelled George W. Bush to speak of a World War III are intentionally not transparent to the American people. The president has much to explain, and it would be incumbent upon every venue of civic and public pressure to demand that such an explanation be forthcoming in the near future. The stakes regarding Iran have always been high, but never more so than when a nation’s leader invokes the end of days as a solution.

Curt LeMay and I used to meet with Ed Teller for lunch sometime. We’d always be given our best table in the place, where we could see the clear Vandenberg skies out the window and watch the doors too. Curt would challenge Teller to come up with a new “package,” as he liked to call it, one he could fit to his 58 and pipe down the nose of some Russian base commander. Curt loved those clear skies over Alaska, was especially taken with the Arctic Route, pristine,...what a hot dog he was, always wanting to do the solo penetration run instead of being part of a wing. Teller, obliging his quirky companion, would pull a sheet of paper out from his vest pocket and sketch-out his newest device for General LeMay’s perusal. I would usually sit there quiet, sipping at my wellwater tea while these two huddled and made the world simpler to understand. Eddie came up with a beaut once, leaving LeMay walking out the door talking about where could he get funding, the package a lightweight ten clustered-cylinder job Curt could flip out the bay of the 58 at mach3 anywhere near the target. The cylinders, each good for a megaton or so would flip apart in flight, scattering over maybe 2 miles before doing their near-surface detonations. For both Eddie and the old pilot, one megaton of H-bomb was worth a hundred of fission megatons..they really ate up this stuff.

Forgive all this idle recollection. I’ve just got word our wing is out past failsafe; I’d better get washed up and attend to business at hand. Things are going to warm up in a hurry around here and I have to get those 50’s out to the boys at the perimeter.

Good, Mr Fishburne. We do see a confluence of disparate interests in these grand historic movements. But history doesn’t usually “happen”, does it?

It takes years of dedicated efforts by thousands of participants to prepare the ground for the sowing of the seminal event - Pearl Harbor, 9/11, the burning of the Reichstag, ShockAndAwe - that changes the sweep of historic tides.

There actually are conspiracies, you know, in board rooms and think tanks, in caucuses and editorial staff meetings, in retreats and convocations, in tea houses and chat rooms. There are rolling conspiracies sustained over many weekends by shifting foursomes teeing off of a fine Sunday morning. Conspiracies organize funding, and phone banks, and boycotts, and strikes, and sell-downs, and buy-outs, and lock-outs, and freeze-outs, and sick-outs, and marches and movements and wars.

Doug Feith’s “Office of Special Plans” was a conspiracy to stovepipe intelligence vetted to endorse our ill-starred adventure into the MidEast boneyard of imperial ambition.

AIPAC is a conspiracy to keep US and Israeli interests forever joined at the goddamn hip.

David Horowitz and Daniel Pipes run a conspiracy called Campus Watch, which is dedicated to ensuring that the voice of dying Palestine never gets a public airing.

These disparate conspirators conspire together when their interests coincide. This then becomes advocacy. It’s perfectly legit, no one doubts that.

No, it’s not just twelve people in the Situation Room. At first. But it can get there soon enough, and that was an article of the thesis Kubrick laid out in “Strangelove” (really, people, if you haven’t had the experience, rent this flick). It can devolve, sadly, to the point where one earnest and decent man tries to persuade another earnest and decent man not to participate in the utter and irrevocable thermonuclear transformation of sweet mother earth.

The red phone, Mr Fishburne. The moist mouthpiece of the red phone. That’s what all of human history can come down to.

No one suggests a simplistic analysis. One does suggest that the complex is refined, by conspiratorial consent, down to the simple in order to generate a simplistic response. “With us or against us.” “Axis of evil.” “Evildoers.” “Fight them there so we don’t have to fight them here.” “Spreading global democracy.”

That last, by the way, was a public “yee-hah” moment limned by Bill Keller on the editorial page of the NY Times back in the days before the shitstorm. In an op-ed, he wrote - in effect - forget WMD, forget all the other excuses we’ve labored to devise to justify invasion. This is the master narrative: We are bringing democracy to the benighted. This is the one we run with.

Look it up. Got him promoted to Editor in Chief.

So, in fine, yes. It’s complex. But communities of interest conspire to select the most effective wedge. After the nut is cracked, there is plenty of time to quarrel over the meat.

I bet $100 that Scotty Ritler will not touch the story that 7 informant members of the airbase of the B-52 bomber with the nukes—all found dead. Accidents my @ss.
Killings go on and our media are silent. {:-(

One time this old Indian mentioned to Northern Dine (Cree) friend WolfChild that some of the younger ones were distressed because so few of us seemed to be aware-of and responding-to the actual “situation” here. He suggested reminding them that our Mother Earth, while exceedingly generous, is not wasteful. If only “a handful” are available, he said, then only that many are necessary to restoring the balance (actually, in our languages, literally “dynamic imbalance”) She thrives on. So cyrena (#109876) might take heart from knowing first-hand even a few of “the few”....not to mention being among us herownself.

For each of those neo-fascist/nazi/liberal/con “bunkers” being prepared (all of ‘em, not surprisingly, in or near places long-known by us Natives to be especially strong in a spiritual way), there are also a handful at least of us surviving free wild natural People who will be the Good Medicine that acts as anti-dote to the blitzkreig of terminally toxic terror the tormentors and their damned fool tame two-legged dupes intend to unleash upon the masses of “their” sleep-walking subject/citizens. So the “numbers” racket turns out to be just another big part of the whole privateering pyramid scheme anyhow. Our Mother Earth will have what she needs in the way of Two-Legged Children….come hell AND high-water (the Purification Ceremony, the Beauty Way, Washte Wash-Day, as some of us call it).

“That inverted patriotism whereby the love of one’s own nation is transformed into the hatred of another nation, and the fierce craving to destroy individual members of that other nation….Jingoism is the passion of the spectator, the inciter, the backer, not of the fighter.”

If any of this stuff is true, (and there’s no reason to believe that it isn’t), we MIGHT get a reprive.

So, I had to post this. Ive never referenced this site before, so I dont know how credible it is, but it sounds plausible enough to me. More than anything, it sort of gave me a nice chuckle. Anyway, Ive included a few selected portions from it, and you can use the link to access the rest. Reads almost like a tabloid, EXCEPT that its all perfectly believable.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2007
Bush White House begins to disintegrate

Page update: 27.10.07

“The Bush White House is in turmoil. Barbara Bush, the President’s mother has accused George Bush Jnr, the President, of destroying the Bush family name. The President himself is drunk much of the time, and important meetings have had to be cancelled or postponed on “medical grounds” because of this. Laura Bush, the President’s wife, has had divorce papers prepared and has said that she will only continue to present publicly as George’s wife until he leaves office. She has demanded a ten million dollar honorarium for providing this photo shoot service. Laura Bush did not accompany George to the APEC meeting in Sydney in September 2007.”

One by one the Bush family bank and brokerage accounts are being closed down or blocked . They say he soon will not be able to pay his Crawford staff.

And then, this The World Court has lodged ten charges of Treason against George Bush Jnr, the 43rd President of the United States of America. These will shortly be served on him by the Adjutant General for the USA accompanied by the Provost Marshall for the USA (Brigadier General Rodney Johnson). More details can be found in a Casper Update of the 21st September 2007 here. It is said that the President is using Patriot Act emergency powers to prevent news of these Treason charges reaching the mainstream media in the USA.

Heres another tidbit on Cheney too.
The Vice President, Dick Cheney, is popping pills like Jimi Hendrix at the Isle of Wight. He is as close to dead, physically, as a zombie can be. He is being propped-up by medics like a Soviet-era dictator.

Behind the scenes, elements of civil war are becoming evident within the White House. On the eve of the IMF/World Bank Annual Meetings at the end of October 2007, Dick Cheney attempted to steal $45 billion from George Bush Jnr. A long-serving banker of Pakistani origin based at the New York office of Credit Suisse diverted $45 billion for a secret personal account held by Halliburton in Dubai for Vice President Richard B Cheney. The $45 billion represented stolen money held in trust for the President of the United States, George Bush Jnr.

 ..the only out this old Savage knows of, after a very long life of paying close attention, is what our Lakota relatives call the Tiyoshpaye Way. Of course taking it means giving-up ones civilized individuality, with all of its artifactual advantages, and giving all ones precious personal attention to fulfilling the organic function of Humanity within the Living Arrangment of our Mother Earth.

 So, whos ready for some HERstory, for a change?
ME TAO!!! Im ready. Been preparing for 7 years. Been trying to prepare as many other of my two-legged creature friends as well, but some of em just cant get with the program, and so theres really just me and a scattered few others.

Apparently that instinct for survival isnt as prevalent among us as you might have thought. (or me either). I find most of my fellow creatures still in an overwhelming sense of denial. Maybe its for the best. Maybe all of us arent meant to survive.

So, Im paying close attention, to everything you say. (still very much a novice at this, but Im learning). Purplewolf tells me that the Wolf is the teacher. I used to hear them here close by, at night. For some reason, it was instinctively a comforting feeling, but I also took it as a warning. NOW, I dont hear them. Maybe the fires? Maybe the Teacher determined that She couldnt hang around forever, trying to get the message across. BUT, I heard it.

And, there just doesnt seem to be a whole lot of time left, to finish the transition. At least not if were planning to survive. So, keep talking. A few of us are paying attention.

The relative ease with which theamericanpeople are being herded to their “destruction” has this old Indian wondering what ever happened to their supposedly strong instinct for “self preservation.” The same holds true for the rest of the world’s nearly 7 billion (by latest count) domesticated humans.

Seems like the tormentors and their two-legged privateering partners couldn’t be much more specific about their intention to dispose of almost everybody not a member of the in-crowd….which is probably 98% of the population. Starting again from-scratch with selected “breeders,” after culling-out all the increasingly marginal old stock, would be exactly what any half-way sensible “operator” would be setting-up to do at this point. Isolating the “chosen few” from whatever bio-chem agents are finally used to implement the latest “final solution” would also be part of the “project.”

Right now nearing completion beneath the Paha Sapa (Black Hills) is a massive “retreat” where some of the select and their “owners” will wait-out the coming “global” auschwitzification of the economically “redundant.” There are other such “undisclosed locations” scattered strategically all around the world.

To any here who might still feel such extreme ruthlessness is beyond the pale for even this present generation of global gangsters, it would be well to look at their utterly vicious record to-date. What have they refrained from carrying-out so far, in the way of institutionalized degradation, exploitation, rape, ruin, and wholesale murder that they have said openly they intended to effect? What part of their increasingly “public” plans for worldwide holocaust (Doesn’t this mean something like “burnt offering”?) can they be counted-on to shrink-from….and for what conceivable reasons? Doesn’t any clear-eyed, strong-stomached look at these “heirs” (like “Temporary” Bush) lead inevitably to the conclusion that they have themselves been bred specifically to implement this “end-game” phase of a ten-thousand-year-long program for “....subdu(ing) the Earth,” and to be (many of them) sacrificed themselves in the process?

Maybe it’d be merely merciful, after-all, if this doom falls “upon the just and unjust alike” while their addled minds are absorbed by politics and pre-occupied with poker and the ten million other manufactured distractions available 24/7/365 to keep the insufficiently wary moving steadily and stupified toward “the showers.” Considering the tormentors’ insatiable appetite for misery, grief, and terror, though, us surviving free wild natural Human Beings are not optimistic about the chances for our tame Sisters and Brothers to simply (and luckily?) “....die in (their) sleep.”

To those on this thread wondering what’s a soon-to-be totally fucked muthah to do, as a possibly viable response to “The Situation,” the only “out” this old Savage knows of, after a very long life of paying close attention, is what our Lakota relatives call the Tiyoshpaye Way. Of course taking it means giving-up one’s “civilized individuality,” with all of its artifactual “advantages,” and giving all one’s precious personal attention to fulfilling the organic function of Humanity within the Living Arrangment of our Mother Earth.

The trouble we have with foreign countries that led us into war is because of the failure to interpret the language properly. If we tell a foreigner to go jump in the lake, he believes we want to go swimming. Conversely, if they tell us an expression of theirs we are baffled. Why in the world would they want us to do that in public, do they want us to get arrested? In Latin America GM wanted to sell the indigenous people Nova cars. In Spanish Nova means it doesn’t go? Why in gods name would they want to buy a new car that doesn’t go? Is this the reason that we should not look back because Toyota is gaining on us? HP advertised on their bill boards that means in the Hispanic language that if you use our ink we can bring your ancestors back from the dead. Would they really want that if they owed them money. In Japan, the British package golf balls in a number of balls that are bad luck in Japan. Why would a golfer want golf balls that will surely go in sandtraps or ponds?

You really should research a subject before calling your intellectual superiors names. Kurds had a pre-Islamic relgion that has been melded to sufism in order to not be wiped out by the f’n muslims. They have separate religious text for that religon, Ezidism, written in their own language, and keep pretty quiet about it to avoid the capital apostacy charge. Why do you think the rest of the Islamic world hates them so much? Sufism itself is a much more reasonable for of Islam than Sunni or Shia, and persectued in many muslim states. Ezidism even more so.

Scott Ritter, another amateur historian. He cribs some Muslim history from a couple of popular paperbacks (or Wikipedia?), then criticizes Americans for not keeping up to his Freshman collegiate standards?

Where’s the application of this background to the statements of Iraqi Shia and Sunni leaders, to the so-called (insultingly) Arab Street in Iraq? What do modern Iraqis believe, given this historical context? Oh, finding that out would be real work, something Ritter has conveniently left to those who don’t take crib notes to their exams.

Pull the beam out of your eye, Scotty, before you complain about the mote in ours.

It appears the neocon nut cases in charge of our government perceive Iran, like Iraq, as “doable” (in the immortal words of Wolfowitz).

Is America stupid enough to fall for this obvious propaganda a second time? I’m afraid so.

Iran hasn’t invaded another country in over two hundred years. Iran has no nuclear weapons, and her leaders repeatedly have stated they have no intention of seeking nuclear weapons. Iran has every right to pursue peaceful nuclear power; in fact, the USA was in the process of building nuclear power plants for Iran back when they were under our satrap, the Shah.

Iran has a GNP—even with oil revenues—about on a par with Ireland, slightly more than Denmark, and a little less than Norway (see Wikipedia to verify this). In short, it is a typical, third world economic basket case.

Now, George W. Bush speaks openly of “World War III” if Iran is allowed even the technology to build a nuclear weapon. He talks about Iran some day acquiring missiles (at some indeterminate date) that could reach Europe or America. This guy is freaking nuts!

Iran has repeatedly made attempts to open talks with the US government. All such attempts have been rudely rebuffed.

Am I part of the “blame America” crowd? YES. (That is, I blame the American government. The American people are now solidly against this insane empire-building. But, contrary to what Ms. Pringle taught you in 8th grade social studies, “the People” do not rule. They just issue a sanction to the government every two years to keep doing the same thing.)

Do I “hate America”? NO. But I sure as hell hate our government. If you cannot see the fact that the neocon whackos running our government are moral monsters, you’re blind, deaf, and lobotomized.

Is Bush the only one who believes in Armageddon? According to the timeline of events leading up to the Iraq war assembled by Mother Jones magazine (see its website), on August 14, 1992, Cheney spoke to the Discovery Institute in Seattle. The Discovery Institute is a think tank best known for its advocacy of creationism, more recently in the guise of ‘intelligent design’. Why would Cheney be speaking there?

For such a brilliant group of commentators, I have to wonder why there is so much preoccupation with reducing America’s middle east policy down to one motive?

I couldn’t even get 10 of my friends to come up up with a single reason for playing a game of softball. It’s just not reasonable to look for an overriding determinate factor for our current war-in-waiting with Iran.

It should be obvious that the oil barons have their reasons, and the evangelicals have theirs. Just as the Military Industrial Complex has altogether different motives. And the Israel-first crowd have theirs.

Sure, money is driving some people, but I would guess very few. They may live in a gated community, but they gotta come out sometime, if only to fill up their tanks, or to look for some fresh breeding stock. It wouldn’t do them much good to render the world outside their gates a technicolor wasteland.

But if those same people could fight a culture war AND horde some filthy lucre in the process - now we’re talking business. If they could do god’s work and land that stealth bomber contract…

To be sure, there are folks out there who really do believe we are surrounded by evil on all sides. And there are others who know fully well that they are taking advantage of a society’s fresh-off-the-assembly-line fears, but rationalize cynically, ‘if not me, then someone else…’

Yes, if only it all came down to just 12 guys in a Strangelove boardroom playing checkers with people’s lives. That would be so simple, so elegant, so biblical in it’s moral shading.

The toughest kind of conspiracy to fight is the conspiracy of circumstance. That flash-point in time when the situation is right for history to… well, happen. But that is just what we are facing in the showdown/shakedown with the Ayatollahs.

I took notice of this quote awhile back, while watching the news one evening.

“Everything is on the table as in all things.”

George Bush, ABC News, 1/30/2007, in response to position on use of force against Iran.

So…
If you ever wondered where we are ultimately going in all of this, and what our current top secret analysts are really projecting and planning for the future, here is the only answer you will ever need.

Armageddon as believers envision it is going to be pretty universal. I wonder on what rock in what ocean or on what distant planet the Bushies think they themselves are going to escape the consequences of their own evil folly. For some reason, I just don’t see Heaven in the mix.

Trying to decide on the scariest thing to masquerade as on Halloween? Look no farther. A Bush mask will serve the purpose (get a Cheney mask if the Bush false faces are all sold out—emphasis on “false faces”).

With atrocities being committed on both sides in Servia/Kosovo, I actually understand the idea of ethnic cleansing vs. becoming an Islamic state. Partition was the best solution. The Kurds are in almost the same boat. While Turkey claims to be secular, I suspect a majority of Kurds want to reject Islam, but know that they will always be second class citizens without paying it lip service.

Likewise, Iraq, the tribal animosity between Shia and Sunni in Saddams wake probably won’t stop until the Sunni are all gone or dead, and partition may be the only answer.

You may be too optimistic about humanity, particularly when members of the cult of Abraham are in the mix.

This article depicts the grim future we face with clarity. People have be commenting on, and warning about, both the madness and the hidden politics for years. Comparison have been made to Germany of the 1930s since the beginning of the Bush/Cheney era.

History has shown that countries, and their empires, trumpeting that the are following gods voice are moving towards collapse. Delusions of the final age and judgments have sent other most powerful countries in the world into collapse. Usually accompanied with a belief that financial services are all gods people need for a viable economy. A sure sense that there is no need for production but only financial services.

Since the stone age our species has been moving toward a reality and knowledge based world view. The trek has been long, painful and beset with many detours and reversals. Today we Americans have had a cabal pushing for illegal and unnecessary wars, replacement of reality and knowledge by superstition and the destruction of of our constitution for their own purposes.

We owe it to the world to end this madness we have visited upon our species.

What humans have to do, as a species, is to start thinking like a race of Earthling’s.

#109169 by cyrena on 10/23 at 8:57 pm: “...since it IS a very dangerous enterprise, for which there is no pay, and lots of pain, and impossible to accomplish alone, ALL HELP would be most appreciated….”

I think that the Burmese (Myanmar) people, Buddhist monks especially, should be our example. Theirs is a far greater risk and at far greater cost yet they have repeatedly persevered despite previous bloody military crack-downs. It would be very poor indeed not to try to equal their dedication and bravery and unselfishness yet still to refer to the USA as “the land of the free”! By the way, something should be done about Chevron, there, too, uhh.

There once was a nation called Kurdistan which was dissected by British and other european invaders after the fall of the Turkish empire at the end of WW1 some 80 years ago. They are a large ethnic group just as much as the Arabs and the Persians and deserve to have self rule.

But the Bush Neocon’s solution? Let’s go bomb them (Turkey is our “ally” so f#ck them)!!!

#109032 by hazmaq
Hazmaq,
Thank you, thank you, and thank you  again. For pointing this out, and bringing it to our attention. Even those of us who do our best to maintain a position of informed decisions and analysis, can be (and often are) distracted by the BS. (which is of course the intention)
So, Ive reposted the summary and what is (for me at least) the most important thing to take from this, (besides a reminder of these names, Lantos, Hoyer, there are a few others). So, you wrote:

 Notice that the focus and blame for all Democratic failures is all on Pelosi of San Francisco. Shes obviously an inept public leader and doesnt run the show behind the scenes, or Murtha would be in charge.

But what theyre really doing is to let her be used as a scapegoat and a punching bag, while they continue to have private agreements with George W. Bush.

This small bunch of Democrats are almost more at fault than Bush. You dont give a destructive child idiot all the keys to the gun cabinet, then claim you couldnt stop him from shooting people.”....

First of all, Scott has good credentials. His article shows great insight into what is going on behind the scenes in WDC, and I enjoyed it, in spite of the following exceptions.

I took exception to Scott’s interpretation of the church and state issue. He is merely parrotting the unfounded conclusions of our corrupted courts and politicians. Scott got it half right. The First Amendment was intended to keep government out of religion, but not the other way around. Many of the Founders (they weren’t a monolithic group, by the way), believed that government leaders (and the people at large from whom leaders would be chosen) should be guided by religious principle, otherwise the government and society would devolve into a cabal of self-interest run amok. Of course, being guided by religious principle is not the same as being a theocracy.

Washington said it best in his Farewell Address: “Of all the dspositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indipensible supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connections with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked: Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice? And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.” Note that Washington, a man of the Enlightenment period, says that both REASON and EXPERIENCE forbid us to conclude that “national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.”

Benjamin Franklin had this to say in a letter to Ezra Stiles: “As to Jesus of Nazareth, ... I think the system of morals, and his religion, as he left them to us, the best the world ever saw, or is likely to see; but I apprehend it has received various corrupting changes, and I have, with most of the present dissenters in England some doubts as to his divinity; ... I see no harm, however, in its being believed [i.e. Christ’s divinity], if that belief has the good consequence, as it probably has, of making his doctrines more respected and better observed;...”

Although Lincoln’s quote might seem to have been appropriate, it is hypocritical coming from a despot who preferred to go to war and cause the slaughter of 600,000 fellow citizens rather than change economic policy, which was the root of the War Between the States, not slavery.

Finally, the last book of the Bible is the Book of Revelation, singular, not Revelations, plural.

Can Gandhism work against the likes of Cheney and Bush and the Saudi Royal thugs?

Americans have lost their jobs; the US Corporations are richer than ever; US Billionaire have gone from 50 to 200; The Chinese Government exploite their own cheap labor; and the beautiful people are busy celebrating their wealth.

Whatever happened to a Government of the people; for the people; by the people???

What happens to the ordinary human being, across the world, who just want a, normal, happy life?

How many Iranian children will die for Cheney, Bush and Bibi Netanyahu to achieve happiness?

I just wish there were more Jewish people applying their intellect to pointing out the insanity with the whole system the Democrat/Republicans serve so slaveishly.

Scott, do you believe as I do that Bush wouldn’t be so cock sure of himself if he didn’t already believe he had enough support in Congress to carry all of his plans forward?
I bring this up after just hearing about a bill stalled for years in the Foreign Relations Committee now chaired by the old pro-war, pro-attack Iran, anti-muslim racist hawk named Lantos.
It’s H.Con.Res.177, which expresses “..the sense of Congress that the crisis regarding the Iranian nuclear program should be primarily resolved through diplomatic means.”
Or how about House Joint Resolution 14, which will return war declaration authority to the rightful hands of the legislative branch and prevent a preemptive attack on the people of Iran?”

But no. Steny Hoyer has allowed nothing but useless time wasting motions to come to the floor instead. Trying to buy George W. Bush some time? As they did while Lebanon was destroyed. Or time to grab Iraq’s oil and wealth, perhaps? Hoyer is the main force behind that benchmark.

Steny Hoyer not long ago told people he had no intention of using “a balanced hand” when dealing with the people of the Middle East. And Lantos is a neo-con hard-liner at heart. And Bush knows those two are with him.

So this group of newly crowned ‘Democratic’ wolves in sheeps clothing threw other good Democrats and the voters under the train and now promote every NSA/war related policy Bush has asked for.

Look at the past…Hackett, Murtha, Ned Lamont, Feingold and on and on I could go, all good people silenced not by dirty tactics of the Right, but by an inside cabal of Congressional Democrats with ‘other interests’, who used the DCCC and DSCC purse strings to look for more hard liners..
The same ones who gave election promises to Joe Lieberman and helped force him back into his Senate Chairmanships.
Now, Lieberman, Hoyer and Lantos call most of the shots on our foreign policy decisions and on all matters of war.
Bush couldn’t have asked for better allies.

Notice that the focus and blame for all Democratic failures is all on Pelosi of ‘San Francisco’. She’s obviously an inept public leader and doesn’t run the show behind the scenes, or Murtha would be in charge.
But what they’re really doing is to let her be used as a scapegoat and a punching bag, while they continue to have private agreements with George W. Bush.

This small bunch of Democrats are almost more at fault than Bush. You don’t give a destructive child idiot all the keys to the gun cabinet, then claim you couldn’t stop him from shooting people.

Hi Mossada, I just wanted to say that the Saudi’s virtually own Bush due to large investments in the Bush empire throughout the 70s and 80s. That’s why they are not responsible for 9/11. (Plus it was an inside job, and we put them up to it..)

The public faces of gov’t are not the true power brokers in the US. Most are not on the ‘list of wealthiest people’ either. Bill Gates has more influence on our national policy than you or I, but not significantly more. Bush, Cheney, and Rummy may have been an “Axis of Evil” but neither they and the think tank kids like Rove and Libby are just tools of the old money families where money is in private businesses and trust with unclear ownership and control.

The elite most likely look at the monkeys in the White House as dumb kids just having a little fun.
If they start WWIII, so what? The small group of families that wield true power are so international and own so enough of all of the channels of wealth, that any calamity only funnels more wealth upward. They can’t lose. And I suspect they get a secret pleasure in a time such as this when we are shown we are sheep with no real control of our national policy or direction.

If you think the Democrats are any different you are sadly mistaken. They work for the same people and that ain’t you or me.

The American economy is vaporware. We produce very little, while even food production, one of our most prolific resources, is now only part of a global supply chain that can be turned off overnight if we misbehave. They don’t need us anymore, hence the open borders, free trade, offshoring and H-1B workers widen the gap and keep us invested in the survival of conspicuous concermerism as our national religion.

The only real threat to that elite in recent years has been Iran and Iraq engaging in oil trade in Euros vs the Dollar. The Federal Reserve issues money on an imaginary value that actually is tied to the worlds largest commodity market, Oil. If the dollar becomes unhinged from the oil market, any intrinsic value is lost, and the emperor’s new close aren’t there anymore.

That is why the only way Iran can avoid being the ‘cause of WWIII’ is to rejoin the Dollar base oil bourse. Saddam refused and we saw his fake exicution. The Iranian people probably won’t be so lucky.

Israel is a convenient tool to maintain the unrest in the mideast that keeps despots in power. We can deal with despots. Educated, thinking humans that attempt to excersize control over their own lives are much harder to deal with. As long as they are busy hating and scratching out an existence in ignorance, the money and power just keep flowing up.

Hi again Sam Snedegar. First off, I’ll thank you not to insult my intelligence in the future as you obviously missed the point of each of my arguments. If you can’t understand what I was saying I will try to clarify for you.

Yes, I agree everyone thinks President Bush is stupid. I know books and tv say this. If you would have read my post more closely you would realize that what I said is that all these books, articles, and tv spots are just part of a media PR blitz. Bush wants us to think he’s stupid, as does his administration so they can get away with more. Beleiving he is stupid is exactly what they want you to do. He is really quite cunning and evil.

Second, I agree we are in Iraq to take their Oil. But the real reason we are taking their Oil is not for profit, and not to keep America running. It is for POWER. We no longer require oil as a resource to power our vehicles or heat are homes. There are many alternative technologies we could use for this. Therefore the war is about POWER and Control, and the resources are just a way to gain this power. If the Iraq war is for oil, and oil is for control, then the real reason for the Iraq war is to control and dominate the region.

Finally, there is no point on arguing if Bin Ladin is alive or not. He is obviously being used for the benefit of the administration either way. That rhetoric about hunting for him was all a lie to begin with. I beleive he is working for Bush.

Finally, insulting other posters just makes you look ignorant. You should take a little more time to consider other’s opinions before responding irrationally. Thank you.

You miss my point entirely, which has got to be entirely my fault. I am often too cute by half.

Usually I would not respond, but your assumption that I’m fishing for co-conspirators, flashed out in public like that, could bring the black Hummers smokin’ down my drive. We can’t have that, now.

No, I’m an ML King kind’a guy. Did the Oakland draftboard, the Human Be-In, the DC marches, the whole naked hippie number back in the day. Mr Peace-Love, c’est moi.

Have horses, not Harleys. Them things’ll kill yah.

But we’re not fucked. We’re just not organized.

Ghandi was a skinny little dude in a loin cloth and granny glasses. But he gave the world-striding Brits a nasty whuppin’ just by getting the better part of a nation to stand stock still. All nice and legal. Let the cops start the riot. Chicago, ‘68.

Will we ever hear in America the call to send Bush/Cheney/Rumsfels et al, to the ICC for their war crimes?

Will the people of America ever learn that they are being manipulated day after day by the warmongers seeking more war profits at the cost of the civil infrastructure to help the poorest and most needed amongst us? What has happen to America that war has become the motto of We The People? Instead of justice and equality for all?

I can only hope that I am able to die a natural death instead of being murdered by the merchants of warfare. Alas America the bright and shining lie!

WR Curley, #108880 “Ah, get a bunch of people with like aspirations together…”
I’ve alway been intrigued with this idea. A few questions: How would you finance this? How could you plan this out under the CIA, FBI, Homeland Security radar so that you had your “machine” up and running before anyone got wind of it. How do you build either a bomb or an army to win against the US Army and all the local police departments? Do you really want to resort to the futility of terrorism? I’ve thought and thought and see no way possible for your idea to work. We know the ballot box and negotiating peacefully and patiently with those who have what we want and need is not an option. So, we’re fucked. Enjoy your Harley, you lucky bastard!

You all have such great comments, and its wonderful to hear from you again Sam Snedegar.

But, I wanted to try and help out WR here, IF in fact it might help.

#108841 by WR Curley

 Who are the cabalists? What are the names we need to know? Whats the underlying agenda? Where do these Masters of the Universe frolic, bouncing the globe like a big rubber ball.

Putting aside the Near Enders for a moment, (because there are about 40 million of them, who apparently dont believe that the Armageddon is getting here quickly enough, so they want to rush it along), and the real cabalists are NOT among them, a good place to start looking for the MAIN culprits, is on the documents created for the PNAC. (Project For A New American Century). Check the signatories to this document, and there you will find the lead characters.

 Richard Cheney,
 Paul Wolfowitz
 Daniel Perle
 Jeb Bush
 Donald Rumsfeld
 I Lewis Libby (Scooter for short  Libby used to be Liebowitz)
 And, the old Saudi guy, (I cannot think of his name) but you know who I mean. He was the Saudis Ambassador to the US, and a personal friend of the Bush-Cheney Cabal, going back many years. He signed it as well. For some strange reason, he left the scene, maybe a year ago? You can check him out, or somebody here will remember quicker.

I forget the rest, and Im too tired to look it up.

HOWEVER, there are others in the shadows as well, that we never see or hear much from. David Addington has always been a Cheney staple. (replaced Scotter Libby after he got convicted and all  not that it mattered) and there are a few others on Cheneys secret staff, that we dont know a whole lot about. But, they are all the Cabalists. (plus the ones I cant think of right now, from the PNAC).

As for Groups in addition to these specific individuals, (though many may be cross referenced) you could look to The Carlyle Group, and the associated House of Saud. (If you have time to read a good book, Check out Americas Kingdom: Mythmaking on the Saudi Oil Frontier by Robert Vitalis). Many of the same actors are involved. They put ARAMCO together back in the 70s, making Saudi Arabia the first of the US Cabals private enterprises in the Middle East. Some of them are carry-overs as well.

Then, others are newer. Paul Bremer, (though I dont remember him signing the PNAC, or being part of the New World Order.)

And of course there are the Halliburton, Bechtel, and ChoicePoint folks too. You might also include Condi Rice, (previously of Chevron) and whomever else Cheney had on his secret Energy Commission, prior to the original Coup of December 2000. He refused to give up the information, even after the GAO sued, and Scalia said he didnt have to. (Scalia might be in the Cabal as well).

Anyway, if it has to do with oil, then theyre one of the Cabalists. BUT, there are more than just them, and of course they have many working for them.

Ill look for the stuff on the Near Enders though I dont think theyre hooked up with the genuine Cabalists. Needless to say, they arent worried about controlling all of this oil, since they just want to see us all go out in a blaze of glory.

Thats not the Cheney plan though. Hes already got his digs set up in Dubai, and george the moron has his ranch in Paraguay.

Last but not least, the Iraq, Iran, and probably the Syrian Operations have been planned since at least 1997, maybe sooner. Someone else mentioned in the post, that the moron gave a clue to this, in his first SOU address, calling Iraq, Iran, and N.Korea the Axis of Evil. That was in early 2001. This has been on the table that long, if not longer.

Ritter or better said—The Ritler strikes again.
For a UN man that worked for the CIA as a spy and working in Nuke physyics and math,he is still hung up that Arab Saudi terrrorists did the 911 bombings.
Humbug ! quote-“following the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States”. If/ When Ritler uses his math (tall bldgs don’t fall faster than gravity and airline planes can’t fly over 225 mph at ground 20-700’levels ) then he might come clean.
Guy is a plant {:-(

Mearsheimer and Walt shoot down very effectively the idea that the Iraq war was about oil. It was not, but that is the arguments Neocons and their allies use to try to conceal what it really WAS about. And that was to destroy a possible future threat to Israel and to make an example of a Muslim nation that had not submitted to US/Israel control (in contrast to Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, etc.). We don’t need and never did need to go to war to assure the supply of oil from the Middle East. In fact if we really were concerned about the oil supply we would support the Palestinians and thus please the Muslim nations that control the oil. By attacking them and supporting Israel we are going against our own interest. That is exactly why the Israel Lobby lobbies so hard: to warp US Middle East policy in a direction contrary to genuine US interests. And so far it has succeeded.

The White Houses propaganda campaign laying the groundwork for military action against Iran dates back almost six yearsto Bushs 2002 State of the Union address in which he designated Iran as a founding member of the axis of evil. Since then, this drumbeat has waxed and waned as other concernsprimarily the disastrous invasion and occupation of Iraqhave often commanded center stage. Now, with the Bush administration approaching its final year in office, a renewed push and a shorter fuse are increasingly evident. My 3-minute YouTube video entitled Forewarned Is Forearmed: Bush On Iran is available HERE. It offers a very brief but deeply troubling chronicle of the presidents public warmongering and demonization of Iran. As has been said before, the hour is getting late.

If you see Iran as a monolith of Jew hating bigots then you are making a big mistake. If Iran is wrong for backing Hizbullah; then Israel is, at the very least, equally at fault for violently mistreating the Palestinians.

Try to remember, just as not everyone in Iran is an “Evil Doer”; likewise not everyone in Israel is some kind of saint.

The Problems Kurdish PKK groups are causing has Mossad’s fingerprints all over it. Which is also why Saddam gased the Kurdish populations in the north due to Mossad inciting the Kurds to make trouble. Not that Israel gives a damn about the Kurds.

Israel’s usual selfrighteous CYNICAL policy of stirring up shit for the sake of maintaining a No, No, No attitude and a militarized economy. The eternal struggle, heroically defending this comic book notion of Victimhood. You would think, by now, Israel would try to grow up.

Every one of us is capable of commiting sin and acts of violence. I think it’s high time Israel take a good hard look in the mirror and see what kind of a monster it has become. The ends don’t always justify the means. Because if they do, then even Hitler could have mounted a defence for his conduct.

Hadley is a long-established neoconservative thinker who has for the most part operated in the shadows when it comes to the formulation of Iran policy in the Bush administration. In 2001, following the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States, Hadley (then the deputy national security adviser) instituted what has been referred to as the Hadley Rules, a corollary of which is that no move will be made which alters the ideological positioning of Iran as a mortal enemy of the United States. These rules shut down every effort undertaken by Iran to seek a moderation of relations between it and the United States, and prohibited American policymakers from responding favorably to Iranian offers to assist with the fight against al-Qaida; they also blocked the grand offer of May 2003 in which Iran outlined a dramatic diplomatic initiative, including a normalization of relations with Israel.

This is the most fascinating phrase in the entire article. What it tells us is that Iran CONTINUED its efforts to normalize relations with us, despite being rebuffed in their offers to help us in Afghanistan and being labeled part of the “Axis of Evil”. The last sentence is particularly depressing because it meant that Iran was willing to make peace with Israel and end THAT unnecessary conflict.

Notice that Ritter gives NO grist to the mill of the anti-Israelites who insist Israel is behind the criminally insane rush to war with Iran. Nope, it’s all Cheney and Hadley according to Mr. Ritter.

And, as Ritter notes, it’s ESPECIALLY terrifying when the most powerful man in the world talks about WWIII as a possibility, not a horror to be avoided at any cost. Millions and even billions will die in such a war, started by two cowards who avoided fighting for what they both claim they believed in. And I believe that when that war comes into their own house, they will show what cowards they are.

Even the monsters Hitler, Stalin and Mao all faced battle and war head on. They weren’t cowards and they unleashed hell. How much worse will the hell be that these two bastard cowards will unleash?

Forgot to credit Charles Dharapak for one of the damndest happy accidents I have ever seen in a news photograph. Brilliant work (confused? Note the halo).

It is about power. Power, in these terms, is the mandate to make people do what you want them to do. Ultimately, this implies access to deadly force. Ruby Ridge. Waco. Hiroshima.

This is a psychological phenomenon that shows up in isolated individuals, I reckon. Rapists and such.

But in its far more destructive societal manifestation, it cannot operate without some mutual benefit perceived to accrue to the coalition of the power-seekers. The rapist needs someone to crawl on their knees, begging for the right to live. Your average capitalist does not share this dream (I surmise). There are other hungers, other motivations (I surmise).

You can, as an individual, stride into central Tehran with an Uzi because you hate the phlippin’ Pharsi and you want them to lay off dissin’ Joos, but your boots will fill with your blood in mighty short order. You can, as an Exxon/Mobile stockholder, stride into the lobby of the Iranian oil ministry with an M-16 (you should’a brought an AK-47, by the way) and demand that the Iranian fields be turned over to your home-boys forthwith, but again, that startled look, them full-up boots.

What to do.

Ah. Get a bunch of people with roughly your same aspirations together, build a coaliton with responsibilities and rewards neatly drawn up and notarized, build a force capable of delivering a shitstorm unimagined by God Almighty on His Most Dyspeptic Day, and let the other guy look startled for a change, his boots filling. Then just go ahead and take what the fuck ever you want.

So runs the world away.

Is it about oil, and the power oil confers? Did the Krauts, despite a brilliant first quarter, go home hang-dog because they ran out of Mr Juice in the third? Jah. Jah jew betcha.

Is it about oil, and the raw gut-thumpin’ power that only oil delivers in the near term? NASCAR dad? Is it? ‘Hat Jimmy Johnson, boy, he really do know how to do this track. Sustained 7K RPM and the clutch popping like fifty caliber rounds. Forget about tomorrow, no one knows shitall about tomorrow. Tomorrow we rebuild her top end and crank hem springs a tad, and don’t thet whoore look fine now, crawlin’ toward me nekkid on her kness ‘cross th’ carpet of the Day’s Inn, Charlotte? Yas Lawhd, ‘n thanks to Jeesus for th’ blessin’. I shorely do love my humpin’ big yaller Hummer.

Is there a global competition to seize these irreplaceable, incomprehensibly valuable, strategically vital (go on, fly me a B-1 to Bagdhad on bacon grease) resources? What kind of a dink do you take me for?

The looming Armageddon that Cheney talks about is a product of his reckless and dangerous thinking. Never a thought has been given to diplomacy with Iran. Such an absence of diplomacy indicates a warped, single-minded approach born of the a will to commit us to a potentially deadly war with Iran. We are a country which has committed most of our precious resources to an oil kingdom for a few of Bush-Cheney friends, one of which is Bush buddy, Kelly. War criminal is the proper word for both Bush and Cheney, for they would use our precious resources for the gain of a few. Both seem to be willing to continue this rechlessness for a personal belief shared by only a few neocons. They need to be stopped.

Let’s give Mr. Ritter, a remarkably accomplished and articulate man, the benefit of the doubt, though. Let’s assume he believes his own scenario. This is not always so, of course, in the modern media funhouse; Limbaugh is doubtless pure nihilist until the check clears.

I’m grateful for the insight into the role Steven Hadley plays in the administration. Gate-keeper? Is that about right? He passes settled policy up the pipe to the Veep and the boy-toy?

So Hadley vets the policy and Cheney implements the policy, and W works the treadmill, sweatin’ hard to keep track of any of it…So who makes the policy?

Who are the cabalists? What are the names we need to know? What’s the underlying agenda? Where do these Masters of the Universe frolic, bouncing the globe like a big rubber ball. Under the aegis of what department of government? At what pay grades? Is there any way I can pry a little accountability out of anyone? I’ll say one thing for this otherwise tragically incompetant administration: they sure can keep one hell of a secret, yes they can.

Come on, now. Someone knows these things. It is a matter of the utmost urgency, seriously, for that someone to step out from the shadows - in an underground DC parking garage if necessary - and to let your little light shine. It’s the Christian thing to do.

But look, whoever these people are, they certainly have children at Harvard Law. They are not about to let any loony Baptist jump start Armageddon before the bonds mature. These folks are realpolitikniks, materialists with fat stacks of chips in the game. Houses on both coasts, ski shacks in Aspen, all of it in constant renovation. They do not look for the Anti-Christ…They ARE the Anti-Christ.

Not even Mr Dobson, porked up sleek as a seal, the flag and the cross one to each lapel, his place at the right hand of The Right Hand assured when in the fullness of time the tiny trumpet tinkles and he is perforce relieved of his key to the Lincoln Bedroom; not even he is in any kind of an all fired hurry to slip the coils of his baronial material mortal lifestyle.

Let’s ease up, here. We probably have a while yet before all the Jews convert and the Baptists all desert us.

Meanwhile, let’s just keep working the problem at hand. I do worry about all those Iranians, folks of all stripes, just getting through the day like we all do, trying not to think about the cross-hairs and the howling belly load of bunker busters.

You want to know who what why when where, follow the money. It’s a material world, as that cutesy tyke with the neon do and her bra worn on the outside of her top used to tweet. All the rest of it is opiate from the opiates drawer. Follow the money.

Jeez. There has to be a more efficient way to hold this conversation. Someone clue me,

You should take a look at the Wounded Warriors Project. It raises awareness for severely wounded combat U.S. combat veterans in Iraq and Afghanistan. It really puts a face on the cost of this war. Here’s a link:

Forgot to mention, if you believe in the Peter Principle, just what is Bush’s area of competency. There have always been a number of people I’ve associated with who I thought made a lie out of that “principle” until I rethought what their area of competency might be. Like my supervisor who headed the department and couldn’t do diddelysquat, except sit at the computer all day, literally, and generate memos. So, his competency was not as an administrator but as a memo generator, which he was very good at. But what about Bush?

Samsnedegar I think your comments and your opinion are both spot on. Though I’m sure he probably has mentioned it in passing, the absence of the word “oil” from Bush’s pie hole says barrels about his administration, and congress, I might add. They’re all a bunch of theiving, conniving, lying SOBs and I never did like anything Ritter wrote. My yellow lab has more brains in his rr foot than Bush.

In this very good article you wrote—“On The Eve Of Destruction”—you stated something in your last paragraph that certainly caught my attention. You stated “....in a fiery holocaust born from the fraudulent writings of centuries past.”

Oh yes he is; if he has ever had an independend cogent thought, it has never ever been reported.

“Second, the war is not about oil and never has been.”

Oh yes it is. No oil in Iraq, no war, no boots on the ground, no reason to attack and occupy. If you think that America would have gone to the lengths it has to cover up the real reason for this war were it not for the fact that admitting it was about oil means to admit to coveting, lying, murdering, and stealing, then all I can say is I am sorry that your brain is comparable to that of the moron in the white house.

“Finally, Bin Laden is not dead.”

I can’t prove he is, but you certainly cannot prove he isn’t. His being dead explains a lot more than his being alive and unfindable does. His being dead explains why we didn’t capture him in Afghanistan, didn’t see him on tv denying his complicity in nine eleven—-which the Mullah Omar did for him, but he did not do for himself. Later some audiotapes appeared, but fakery in those is commonplace, and when the video did appear, it seems that Osama’s big eye changed sides of his face, and his beard isn’t right. Well, you have one “fact” unproven, but the other two are real and will have to be dealt with better than by merely saying I’m wrong. Bring some proof of Bush’s brilliance next time, and deal with the plain fact that if there were no oil in Iraq, there would be no American soldiers and Marines there either.

Even if we hadn’t decided to steal the oil, we still had the problem of Saddam using it when the sanctions on Iraq HAD TO BE DROPPED by the UN as a weapon to destroy the USA economy by selling his own oil for Euros and undercutting Saudi Arabia as well . . .

You know you can call a dog’s tail a leg, but he still has only four legs; calling the tail a leg doesn’t make it into one. When he ever comes up with an intelligent ad lib remark that hadn’t been rehearsed several times over, do let me know will you? So far, all he has been able to do on his own is make stupid remarks which prove his ignorance and his incompetence. Or don’t you remember his “we are in hot pursuit” (of bin Laden) and his wild west “dead or alive” handbills? Many books have been written about his stupidity; none about his intellect.

Makes you think.
Is it madness, or is there a grousome economic rationale for ignoring Iran’s peace overtures to America and Israel?

The next round of War Profiteering is being dragged into the slaughter house courtyard, ready to have the blood gush out in crimson Dollar bills. Lockheed Martin, Haliburton and “Little Caesar” Dick Cheney are rubbing their hands in glee. (It is going to be a good war for some people.)

So all one can ask is: How is this going to be sold to the American people? Or has it already been sold?

Once 900,000 Iranian civilians have been killed, will the fever die down in the Corporate Giants and the Whitehouse?

In case it escaped anyone’s attention: none of the 9/11 hi-jackers were from Iraq or Iran. It’s interesting how Saudi Arabia has been ominously left out of any “War on Terror”. I wonder what the Saudis have on America that they can continue their medival practices of petroDollar decadence, backwardness and petty tribalism.

Hi Sam Snedeger. I hate to say that I have to disagree with you on all three of your “facts.”

First off, Bush is not stupid. A massive PR campaign on behalf of the administration has bombarded the media with this idea. It’s easier to get away with treason if you appear incompetant.

Second, the war is not about oil and never has been. It is about POWER and global domination. Controlling this dwindling and unnecessary resource is just the easiest way to achieve such power.

Finally, Bin Laden is not dead. He has always been on the CIA’s payroll and is indeed a friend to this administration just like the rest of the Saudi Royal Family. He is alive and well, and will release a new video whenever it is politically convenient for this administration to have him do so.

I hope this post gets printed because I am a Truthdig member, I just cant log in for some reason.

Armageddon! That one word should be enough to scare the crap out of anybody with an IQ bigger than his waistline. There are a whole lot of people in this country calling themselves christians who can’t wait for this war to happen so they can be swept up in the rapture before the shit hits the fan and they all love the burning Bush. If you’ve ever talked to these people, you’ll know what I mean. Is Oil a factor in this? You bet, but there are other forces at work here besides the corporate criminals. There are plenty of Jews dying for the US to take out all of these mideast counties for security purposes. These are scary times.

Sorry old man, but I got through page one without reading “oil” with respect to Iraq or “Israel” in juxtaposition with Iran, and so I have to figure that you wrote this piece for some publishing company which won’t let you say the word “oil” in ANY context, and won’t let you breathe a word about the REASON for Hadley’s ‘rule’ anent keeping Iran in the doghouse.

It is no wonder the people are ignorant; you help to KEEP them that way.

Noting two facts might help:

1. It’s about oil.
2. Bush is a moron.

I’m working on 3. bin Laden has been dead for years and the Bushitters knew it early on.

These three facts, if they indeed are facts, will help ordinary people to understand the WHYs of what their country is doing; everyone knows they lied us into a war, but WHY seems murky; everyone knows we have killed hundreds of thousands of innocent people by WHY eludes us; I think almost everyone knows that Bush is a farting, nose-picking puppet, but who pulls his strings is hidden from us in the traffic to and from Cheney’s “undisclosed location.”

You don’t help us at all Mr. Ritter; in fact, you confuse us with tons of whats and no whys. Are YOU one of the “everyones” Greenspan named who refused to discuss that the Iraq invasion was “largely” about oil? I think so. He said you KNEW it, but wouldn’t talk about it. I say so too. What is the matter with you?

The fact that this most dangerous evil moron can so nonchalantly mention ww3 as if he was giving us a score to a football game just shows how reckless he is. This man is willing to risk the safety of the entire world in his quest for power and his corporate friends thirst for oil and money. If the American people were really interested in preventing ww3. they would demand the immediate impeachment of Bush and Cheney.

I think everyone is giving far too much focus to the words of Bush about WWIII. What you focus on expands and those desiring peace should keep their focus on peace for the Middle East, and refuse to permit anyone to drag their thoughts into the expansion of war in the Middle East. There is far more power in the collective consciousness than there is in mere words. That is why is important that we do not collective let the words of Mr. Bush inside our brains. For those who want peace, focus on it, give peace the power of your thoughts. When you pray, if you pray, pray to send a shield of protection around Iran and others in the Middle East which our current government seeks to harm. Do whatever works for you, meditation, prayer, etc., but do not give the power of your thought to the words of Mr. Bush.

Nice photo, Associated Press. Once again using the Seal of the President to create a halo behind the head of Almighty Bush. Very original. Oh and there’s snivelling Dick Cheney too! Lurking in the shadows as usual and cloaked in the backdrop of American patriotism…

The right wingers have been talking publicly about WWIII for years now - some have alluded to what is to come as WWIV, as they see the Cold War as III (Gingrich, to name one, said we were in the beginning stages of WWIII a few years back). To say this rhetoric is attributable to Dick Cheney is likely partially true; to say that the president’s religious ideology embraces the end times, likewise, is likely “un” to only partially true.

I personally believe Bush and his administration use the evangelicals much in the same way they manipulate the rest of us. Pandering to them with Apocolyptic notions just helps sure-up their support for a takeover of the world’s largest oil reserves, and allows for Western companies to expand into new markets. Similarly, they overstate the terrorist threat around the world to sure up support for this agenda amongst sane people.

Cheney is an evil, corrupt, power-drunk monster. But the right-wing think tanks - Podhoretz and Kristol to name two influential persons - are pushing this agenda for the benefit of Israel. I think they are pushing this agenda, not for religious purposes, but as a means of expanding the capitalist global empire. Its all about the corporations stupid! The WWIII rhetoric just implies that we going to take over the Middle East and beyond, it will take years of warfare, and that the agenda will inevitably encounter opposition from other nation-states who will be knocked down as they stand up to defend themselves or their allies.

This article depicts the grim future we face with clarity. People have be commenting on, and warning about, both the madness and the hidden politics for years. Comparison have been made to Germany of the 1930’s since the beginning of the Bush/Cheney era.

History has shown that countries, and their empires, trumpeting that the are following “god’s voice” are moving towards collapse. Delusions of the final age and judgments have sent other “most powerful” countries in the world into collapse. Usually accompanied with a belief that financial services are all “god’s people” need for a viable economy. A sure sense that there is no need for production but only financial services.

Since the stone age our species has been moving toward a reality and knowledge based world view. The trek has been long, painful and beset with many detours and reversals. Today we Americans have had a cabal pushing for illegal and unnecessary wars, replacement of reality and knowledge by superstition and the destruction of of our constitution for their own purposes.

We owe it to the world to end this madness we have visited upon our species.

Without any other country’s permission:- “The Iranian regime needs to know that if it stays on its present course, the international community is prepared to impose serious consequences,” Cheney told a forum organized by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “The United States joins other nations in sending a clear message: We will not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon….. Our country and the entire international community cannot stand by as a terror-supporting state fulfills its most aggressive ambitions…”

That is bluntly disregarding the UN and even former “coalition of the willing” partners who the Neocons know can no longer be counted never mind counted on. The USA is desperately pressing on alone in the knowledge that Iran has spurned the $US as a trading currency for oil.

Invasion is the only course left to avoid the collapse of the $US globally as a trading currency. The alternative is the the USA has to start paying off its foreign debt and that is no longer possible. In effect, this is the last throes of the last remaining cold war monster thrashing madly as it dies a hopeless economic death.

So what is the outcome of the USA and Israel nuking Iran and Syria simutaneously? A Mexican standoff with Russia? More likely Russia nuking US forces in Iraq and wiping Israel off the map! It won’t be anything less, I fear.

Meanwhile, Turkey has deployed as many as 100,000 troops, backed by tanks, F-16 fighter jets and attack helicopters along its border with Iraq in anticipation of a possible incursion. Asked about any pending attack, Defense Minister Vecdi Gonul said on Sunday: “...We’d like to do these things with the Americans….”!!! http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSL1354608620071022?sp=true

Its all ready to go…..... and, of course, someone is really raking it in on ever higher oil prices, uhh

Scott, as usual, great article. But you have to slow down and get out the letter blocks…we cannot yet spell freedom, democracy, republic, fascism, dictator, or neocon. This reminds me of texting in a chat room; I’m trying to respond to a comment and the person on the other end is 10 sentences ahead of me. We do you a dis-service; we cannot keep up with your information (good though it is) and fall further and further behind. Thanks for your valiant efforts, but, I think it’s for naught….we just can’t keep up, so good night and sweet dreams…I’m tired and will go to sleep…........

I fear that Bush is not learning from history. The Kaiser’s Germany made the bulk of war declarations in WWI for the sake of strategic advantage: their version of pre-emptive strikes. The US may earn the same outcomes.